A Christmas surprise for Mr Hippo

[mr_hippo]

Mrs Hippo and I sometimes host visiting cyclists - meet & greet at the airport, then to the Hippo House. Following, take the bike to the LBS for a service - it they need it (£14 including clean, polish and tyres de-stoned and polished!). Guests stay as long as they want, a few rides are included to get acclimatised to the westher and traffic and an escort out of Bangkok onto their next destination. Our last guest left yesterday (22nd) on his way to the Cambodian border, I escorted him to Chachoengsao on Highway 304. We parted company in the town centre as he wanted to travel an extra 30kms - I decided to stay overnight in Chachoengsao. We stopped at a petrol station where the owner gave both of us a free Pepsi! I was going to find a nice cheap hotel and was just about to set off when... a Thai lady on the far side of the road called me over. In her pickup, I saw a home made rack for 4 bikes and her English husband got out of the car to greet me. They asked me where I was going and where I had come from. I told them that I was going to find a cheap hotel and travel back in the morning.They told me to put the bike in the pickup and they would take me to a cheap hotel. On the way there the Englisham, David - an 83 year old cyclist from Macclesfield, offered me a room in his house and they would take me back to Highway 304 (the road to Bangkok) in the morning. I thanked David and told him that I liked to be away at first light - he said that was OK with him.
Being from the same area, we had a lot in common, cafes, bikes dealers and we also had some mutual friends! First light came and went and no movement from David or his wife - I am fine in the heat of the day if I set out early enough but not so good if I start out later. After breakfast we were on the road and if I had set off at my normal time, I would have been halfway home! We got onto Highway 304 and I thought 'This will be hell in this heat!' but David dropped me off in familiar territory about 20 kms from home.
So thanks to David & Yupa for their kindness and hospitality.

 

[yello]

A lovely story. Sounds like a real gent too, does David, even if he can't get up in the morning!

Off-topic, but I've always meant to ask Mr Hippo; do you speak Thai? Hellishly difficult I'd imagine. I'd never think of moving lock, stock and barrel to Asia because of the language differences. At least here in France I have a fighting chance of understanding and being understood!

 

[mr_hippo]

Off-topic, but I've always meant to ask Mr Hippo; do you speak Thai? Hellishly difficult I'd imagine. I'd never think of moving lock, stock and barrel to Asia because of the language differences. At least here in France I have a fighting chance of understanding and being understood!

Thai is a tonal language and I am tone deaf! The Thai for 'mother' sounds the same as the Thai for 'dog' to me so I call my mother in law 'Mother' so that I don't, accidently, call her 'dog'!
English is taught from kindergarten but it leaves a lot to be desired - they are taught that the standard greeting is 'Good morning and hiow are you?' to which the standard reply is 'I am fine thank you and how are you?' whiich is delivered monotone. I spoke to a you lady a fewe days ago who was obvously in distress and got the stock answer 'I am fine, thank you and how are you?' If you were fine then you would not be bawling your eyes out!
Taxi drivers think that I can speak Thai, I only have to say, in Thai, 'Turn left' and they think I can speak at a high level!
I don't think in my head that I have room for more languagesI Once asked a taxi driver to take me to the Mayo Hospital in Arabic. I did the same a few weeks later and had a wonderful conversation with the driver who had worked in Saudi, we spoke in a mixture of Thai, Arabic and English.
I have asked taxi drivers to take me to a shopping mall called 'The Mall' in the Bang Kapi district with 'The Mall, Bang Kapi' in several tones without success! That area was once known as 'Happiland' so I say 'Happiland' - the driver says 'Ahh, The Mall, Bang Kapi'!
I was once in a 7-11 and wanted a large bottle of milk and could not see one on the shelves so I asked a young girl in there for one in Thai 'Mee nom kuat yai mai?' but I missed one word out, kuat meaning bottle so what I really said was 'Do you have large breasts?' ' I quickly corrected myself and said the correct sentence and to the girl's credit, she laughed and said in Thai -'No, only small ones!' as she looked at her chest. I have seen her a few times since that incident and she always greets me in the same way by looking at her chest and saying 'Same, same!'
So the answer is 'No, I don't speak Thai but I can get by'.